In an inkjet printer, ink is ejected from a printhead so as to be deposited on a substrate. The ink is stored in a container and is conveyed to the printhead. The printhead is operated so as to eject a drop of ink when required.
An inkjet printer that is designed for commercial use or for large-scale printing may be expected to print on a large substrate, or on a large number of substrates, in a short amount of time. In able to achieve acceptably high throughput, the inkjet printer may be provided with a large number of printheads arranged in a printhead array. The printhead modules of the array may be operated concurrently. For example, the length of a printhead array may be on the order of meters, and may include tens or hundreds of printhead modules. The printer may be designed to produce a large printed product (e.g. 4 meters long and 1.8 meter wide) in a few (e.g. less than four) minutes.
Such printing capability requires supplying a large amount of ink to the printhead array. For example, ink may be provided in large (e.g. 5 liter) supply tanks. The ink is conveyed from the supply tanks to the printhead modules as needed.